The Slap BBC 4

The Slap based on Christos Tsiokas’s novel, which I haven’t read, is the ripple effect in action. We are more than half way through the series now and I wasn’t sure at first, but now think it’s the best thing on telly. I wasn’t sure primarily because of the dreaded voice over explaining everything and nothing in an echoy voice. Because it is also big budget fare the voice over has pictures. Harry, the wealthy macho playboy, for example, imagines kicking one of his worker’s heads in and, lo and behold, the images spring up on our screen with grunts and, in my case, moans, of what the fuck is that? Hugo, the four year old, is shown to be what we would term spoilt rotten. He moans and whines and forces himself into every game and demands to be the centre of attention. His mum makes sure he is. She breastfeeds him (at four!) and has nice breasts. No wonder the other kids look away. When the kids are playing an innocent game of cricket Hugo waves the bat about, flailing at nothing and no one in particular. Harry jumps up and hits him across the face. It’s not a baby slap. It’s a whack. Well some parties do finish with a bang.

This week’s episode featured the breast-feeding Rosie and in the background her partner Gary, who likes a drink, and wants her to let the whole thing drop and not go through with the trial. I thought the trial would be the centre-piece of the show, but it is underplayed and that makes it even stronger. The focus is not on the slap, or on Harry. He’s a responsible member of the community, a businessman…we, the viewer, know that Harry is a cheat and a wife beater, living off his dad’s inheritance, because the episode two weeks ago was about Harry. None of this is shown. Rosie and her ‘alcoholic’ husband and their lack of parenting skills are on trial. Harry gets a slap on the wrists, but it is Rosie and Gary who suffer. The end game where Rosie makes a pass at her Muslim friend’s husband and is told bluntly she is low life and made to agree not to contact him or his wife again was superb.

It was almost as good as last week’s episode which focussed on Connie, the babysitter, and her on-off fixation and petting relationship with Hector, whose fortieth birthday party was the ostensible reason for the whole group to get together. That finished with her drunkenly and dreamily telling one of her school friends, Richie -who has a thing for her- Hector tried to rape her. That’s another pebble thrown into the drama pond. I look forward to the ripple reaching the lovely Aisha and her mixed race children. It’s a cruel world, but lovingly shown.